House bill threatens integrity of forests

Thursday

Jan 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMJan 31, 2008 at 12:57 PM

I respond to the Jan. 21 Dispatch article "State park officials could be shut out." The Buckeye Forest Council has been opposed to this provision of House Bill 357 since it was introduced. The council worked with the Ohio Environmental Council, Sierra Club of Ohio and other statewide and local groups to stop a similar proposal when it was introduced in 2006.

I respond to the Jan. 21 Dispatch article "State park officials could be shut out." The Buckeye Forest Council has been opposed to this provision of House Bill 357 since it was introduced. The council worked with the Ohio Environmental Council, Sierra Club of Ohio and other statewide and local groups to stop a similar proposal when it was introduced in 2006.

We said then, "Oil and gas drilling is destructive to our natural areas as more roads are built to access drilling sites and our forests become more fragmented. Ohio's public lands contain valuable parks, forests and wilderness areas that should be preserved for future generations. Ohio will benefit from enacting a comprehensive energy policy that moves us toward energy efficiency and alternative energy sources rather than shortsighted solutions in favor of industry profits."

Not much has changed, except there is a growing recognition that the destruction to our forests caused by allowing gas and oil drillers is permanent, while these wells are a temporary and minuscule energy fix. Evidence of this destruction can be seen in the Mohican State Forest near Mansfield, where Columbia Gas is permitted by the Ohio Division of Forestry to cut down wide swaths of some of our most magnificent trees to protect its corporate interests.

Who benefits from this? Certainly not the average Ohioan, whose tax dollars are taken to protect our forests but who should be aware these beautiful, calming places are being sold to the lowest bidder.

Once the well is drilled, the owners will demand rights of way to protect their profit margin, with little regard to what they have to destroy to ensure this protection. Then it will be too late to express concern. The oil and gas drilling provisions should be stripped out of House Bill 357 and never resurrected.

DAVID MAYWHOOR Executive director

Buckeye Forest Council

Columbus

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.